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July 24, 2007

A law passed earlier this year prohibits hunting over processed food items. It is aimed at curbing taking bear with bait. But some deer hunters raised the question of whether this prohibits placing mineral blocks in deer food plots. The Wildlife Commission has taken action to assure deer hunters that mineral blocks are allowed.

July 23, 2007

A big time professional football player recently was charged with a pretty serious crime - one that could send him to prison.

There was considerable discussion among TV network commentators over what should happen between now and trial time.

Most seemed to feel the fellow - who has made millions annually - should be "suspended with pay" pending the outcome of the case.

Now hold on a minute. The way our courts operate, disposition of this case conceivably could go on for years. So the suggestion is that this guy should be allowed to draw his breath and his pay while sitting on his butt?

We hear this approach repeatedly, especially with people in government jobs at all levels.

Wampus, admittedly an old schooler, suggests a different approach:

Suspend them without pay. Then, if they are found not guilty, pay 'em.

Or, if with pay, require them to refund the money upon conviction. (Small chance!)

July 22, 2007

After the Duke lacrosse players were charged with "raping" a hired "exotic dancer," they were kicked out of school, their coach fired - and a gaggle of professors paid for a full page newspaper ad denouncing the young men and their alleged conduct.

The students and coach not only were innocent - as "presumed" by the state, despite their being charged - but subsequently were declared innocent by the state's attorney general.

Since then, Duke reportedly has agreed to pay each of the real victims in this matter, more than a million dollars each. That might cover their legal bills and offer some comfort.

But how about those self-righteous professors? The ones whose names were on that ad denouncing the young athletes, who were the real victims?

The professors should be required to pay damages, and for another advertisement in the same newspapers - one carrying a written apology, along with their signatures and pictures. The stripper probably can't afford to do so - but the professors obviously can.

And, socially, they should be regarded as in the same class as the stripper.

Mrs. Wampus was monitoring the marine radio at Beaufort. Some frustrated angler wanted a fishing report. He called "Seed Peddler." That's James Jeffreys, the most persistently successful recreational fisherman I know. And he doesn't hesitate to share information about what he has caught and where.

But this wasn't the best of days.

That notwithstanding, "Seed Peddler" responded optimistically, "The next one I catch will make two!"

The only way to improve on that might have been: "One more and I'll double my catch!"

July 19, 2007

When Clifton Stevens came into Gary Bevell's E Z Tackle shop on US 117 south of Goldsboro, he had two questions:

What kind of fish had he just caught - and how much did it weigh?

The weight question was easily answered. On Gary's certified scales, it went one pound, nine ounces. But what kind of fish was it? Gary scanned his books but couldn't decide. So he called Wampus - long time Wildlife commissioner and outdoors columnist.

From his description, the big perch with green markings sounded to me to be a flier perch. And if so a huge one. Wildlife officials in Raleigh were excited. If the fish was, indeed, a flier, it would be a world record. Fisheries Biologist Kirk Rundle - as excited as the rest of us - came down from Rocky Mount.

But careful examination revealed that it was a big red ear sunfish. A flier, he noted, has a dark "tear drop" extending in a "V" from below its eyes. Its anal fins also have seven or eight "spikes" whereas the sunfish has only three or four.

Nice fish, Clifton, but "no cigar."

Incidentally, Bevell was intrigued by the fact that the North Carolina record flier is bigger than the national "record." The state record being one pound, five ounces and the national record a pound and three ounces. Rundle explained that when the biggest state flier was recorded the report to national officials had not included all the required information.

Wes Seegars, president of Seegars Fence Co. of Goldsboro, has been elected to a full term as chairman of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Wampus had the opportunity of nominating Seegars - who was elected unanimously.

Seegars has earned the respect of fellow commissioners and the Wildlife Commission staff. He has a record as a courageous big game hunter, taking bear with a bow and arrow and bringing down some of the biggest bears in Siberia with his rifle and rounds he loaded at home.

He also won last year's Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament.

As chairman of the commission, Seegars as insisted upon applying sound business principles and accountability in the agency's operations.

These are principles he has demonstrated in the impressive growth of Seegars Fence Company.